FitzDizzyspells

So many unknowns existed in their quest this year. Even the idea that Voldemort had created Horcruxes was only a hypothesis. What if the Dark magic in the diary and the ring was something else, something Voldemort had invented? And even if they were Horcruxes, what if Harry hadn't fully destroyed the Dark magic in the diary in their Second Year? What if a flicker of Voldemort remained and had since regrown in the diary, in the years that followed? Why hadn't Dumbledore kept the diary, to make sure?

But it didn't solve anything to worry about Horcruxes that had, hypothetically, already been crossed off the list. Hermione needed to look ahead, to solve the impossible riddle of where Voldemort's other Horcruxes were hidden.

Where could they go that they hadn't gone already? Hogwarts, Hogsmeade, Diagon Alley, Albania. Harry had discouraged them from digging in the foundations of the orphanage, but what if he'd been wrong? Then there was Hogwarts — certainly a smaller area to search than the entire country of Albania, but somehow just as daunting. The risks of Harry getting caught and brought to Voldemort seemed far too high. But they'd likely have to search the school eventually. How would such a search even begin, though? Perhaps Harry was so attuned to Voldemort that the Horcrux might... call to him? But, no. Harry hadn't been drawn to the locket at Grimmauld Place, before Mundungus had pawned it... Or had Dung gotten ahold of the locket before Harry had even arrived? But Harry also hadn't seemed to sense Ginny's connection to the diary back in their Second Year, otherwise they might've gotten to the bottom of Ginny's possession far earlier. But perhaps Harry was more attuned to Voldemort since his return?

And then there was the other, unknown Horcrux. Something of Ravenclaw's. Or Gryffindor's? According to Harry, Dumbledore had been skeptical that Voldemort had turned something of Gryffindor's into a Horcrux. However, he hadn't ruled it out entirely. Wouldn't Voldmort have wanted to complete the set? Four Hogwarts Horcruxes for the four Hogwarts houses? But perhaps as the Heir of Slytherin, Voldemort had nothing but distain for Gryffindors. Still...

Hermione rolled onto her side with a dry sob. She hadn't even really wanted to go over these questions again for the millionth time, but now here she was, wide awake yet exhausted. Hermione, who'd always based her worth on her mind, no longer seemed to be in control of her thoughts anymore. These questions were always cycling unceasingly through her head — when she ate; when she slept; when she stared out at the forest, terrified that a Death Eater would materialize and stun her before she even registered what she was seeing. Every night, she woke up every two hours, unable to distinguish between her restless dreams and her restless thoughts because they were one and the same. Her fear of failure (even more acute in adulthood than in childhood, when all she feared was poor marks from McGonagall) racked her body like pain. Solutions used to come to her this way, and Hermione didn't understand why the sudden epiphanies that had so often been the end result of her obsessive thinking had seemingly dried up.

Perhaps the stakes had always been lower before, but it seemed absurd to think this way. She, Ron and Harry had always taken way too much initiative to save the day — to protect the Philosopher's Stone, to discover the Heir of Slytherin, to free an innocent convict.

"You're taking on too much yourselves," Mrs. Weasley had told Hermione last summer, as she'd tried to persuade her to return to Hogwarts in the fall. "You're only children. You can't do this alone."

Hermione had stifled a sigh as she'd helped with the wedding decorations, assuming that Mrs. Weasley didn't understand that taking on too much was exactly what she always did. What all three of them always did.